"Biggest mistake of my life," she agreed. She stepped back from the Doctor and held up the bag of Huan Particles awkwardly. "What...should I do with this...?" she asked. She looked over at her shoulder at Rose. "I'm really sorry that I forgot...you know, that they were dangerous. I should've remembered. I should've remembered so I could tell you," she apologized.

The Doctor grinned even more at that, squeezing the back of his neck self-consciously. When Donna held out the sleeve of huon particles, he happily took the distraction.

Picking up the sleeve, he moved across to the TARDIS control panel and opened a small front-panel carefully with his screwdriver. "Don't look at it," he warned, as a yellow glow emanated from somewhere deep inside the TARDIS. He tipped the liquid huons inside and closed the hatch.

"They can't harm anyone in there. Save me refuelling actually. Now we just have to figure out how to get them out of you... both of you. That sort of energy shouldn't be stored by the human body." He looked meaningfully to both women.

Rose shot Donna a reassuring look that said there was no blame there. People forgot things, and sometimes they were important. Rope, for instance, could have saved this whole thing happening back at Torchwood One.

At the Doctor's meaningful look she gave one back. "You get partial blame. If you hadn't stopped carrying that phone we could've just called you." Rose told him, half serious. She couldn't help glancing at Donna though before turning back to the Doctor. She couldn't help wondering the 'how' herself.

He paced the TARDIS, muttering to himself. "Huons. Liquid particles. Activated. Drawn to each other. Ah, think, think, think." With each thought he gripped his hair, or smacked the top of his head in thoughtful frustration.

As much as Donna was now worried for her own safety - as well as Rose's - she couldn't help grinning a bit as the Doctor muttered to himself, pacing and grabbing handfuls of his own hair or abusing himself in frustration. She leaned close to Rose. "He always get like that?" she whispered. "Because...I love it when he does that."

It wasn't that she loved to see the Doctor frustrated so much as she enjoyed the amusing way he reacted to his frustrations. He was a little like a madman, but that made him all the more exciting and fun.

When Donna looked back at the Doctor, an idea occurred to her...it wasn't a great idea, nor did she want to execute it as anything other than a last resort, but...

"If nothing else...couldn't Rose and I just go to the hospital and have our stomachs pumped?" she asked. She wasn't sure that would even be possible, considering she'd never undergone the procedure and only knew it existed through television shows. Even in those cases, it was used when a person had ingested too many pills in an effort to end their own life. Donna didn't particularly want to be lumped in as a suicide attempt, especially when that wasn't the case at all, but if she had to...she'd do it. Then again...maybe since the particles were just that, it wouldn't be possible just to have them, essentially, sucked out of their systems. "Never mind," she said, frowning slightly. "I'm being daft again, I think."

Rose watched his frustrated actions, staying quiet in accordance to his request for time to think. For the moment anyway. When Donna questioned her she couldn't help a smile though as she whispered back.

"A bit." She paused. "Little more than a bit maybe." She added as an afterthought before turning her attention back to him. There had to be some way to get rid of them, didn't there? Then Donna was speaking again and she listened aptly.

Stomach pumping. It was an idea if nothing else, and seeing as all they'd done is drink them, and recently... It made sense to her. Rose frowned some herself as Donna dismissed her own idea.

"Hang on.." She started slowly as she thought of something. "Even if that wouldn't work in our hospitals with what we've got now... What about other times or places? Anywhere really good at cleaning out a system?" It seemed likely that people, especially humans, would stop doing things that would need to get removed. "Or something?"

The Doctor stopped his pacing all of a sudden, spinning on his heel to face Rose and Donna.

"That's genius. You two are just brilliant. Why didn't I think of that? Clean out the system. If we could just reverse the polarity of the huon energy in your bodies, it'll separate itself from the living tissue it needed to activate it. But, to reverse the polarity, we need a negative energy source to interact with the huons..."

The Doctor suddenly resumed his pacing, but this time his pacing had a happier air to it (if that was possible), as if some sort of plan was beginning to hatch in that genius mind of his.

"What d'you mean by a source?" Rose asked the Doctor as his pacing started again. "There were containers of...non-glowing things down in the basement too." She figured she might as well suggest them since she had no clue what it was he wanted.

"There were these things down there too." She mentioned while she thought of it, looking over at Donna briefly. "Couldn't get a good look at them though. Or any look, really. Figured I should say something in case they're going to grow into something that'll terrorize the city or something. Catch it beforehand."

In hindsight Rose realized that it might've been an idea to wait until they had one problem cleared up to bring a possible other to the table.

"Of course, they produced the huons down there in the laboratory. That's brilliant! Did the stuff in the container just not glow, or were they perhaps so dark that it was an absence of any colour at all? Like they absorbed all the light around them? You see, when you make huon particles, you have to also produce anti-huons as a byproduct. They're hard to separate actually. If they're stored down there too, we could use their negative energy to pull out the positive huons, and..."

"You're a genius, you are!" The Doctor positively bounced across to open the TARDIS door, before letting himself take in the rest of what Rose had said.

"There were these things down there too... in case they're going to grow into something that'll terrorize the city or something."

"Um, any more information on these... things?" he asked, looking from Rose to Donna and back again.

"Did the stuff in the container just not glow, or were they perhaps so dark that it was an absence of any colour at all? Like they absorbed all the light around them?"

Donna spoke up, then. "That's the thing, Doctor...it was pitch black in there. I was usin' this thing, here," she said, holding up the key light, "just to see where we were walking and all Rose had was the lit face of her mobile. We weren't really lookin' for anything except something that would glow, so...I mean, I know I didn't take notice of whether they were clear or dark. If it didn't glow, I moved to the next tower." She paused. "It didn't help that all the glass was covered in soot and charred from the fire..." she said gently.

"Um, any more information on these... things?"

Closing her eyes, Donna tried to remember if she'd actually seen any of them. "They were small...really small - one ran across my foot and I only felt it because of the movement. It barely weighed a thing. I didn't ever see one, though," she sighed, looking over at Rose. "But there were loads of them. And I mean, loads."

"She's right. Dunno what was in there at all, just that they weren't bright themselves. You were in there before, weren't you?" Rose asked the Doctor after a moment's thought. "Were there any of the...anti-huons in there then? From what I've seen and heard I don't think anyone'd have put anything new down there, 'cept maybe those things." And she was pretty sure they'd probably put themselves down there.

"All there really is on the things besides that is that they formed a line at some point we think, just saw a shadow. They might be able to climb on the ceiling too." That was rather useless information she realized, but...maybe it would help narrow it down? She thought of something else. "Oh- that light! It's this sort of blue, and they didn't really seem to like that. Might just be they don't like light, but..."

Th Doctor nodded, taking in everything Rose and Donna said and turning it over in his mind.

"I'm not sure. The front tanks were definitely huon particles when Donna and I were in there last time, but we were fairly busy dealing with the Empress of the Racnos and--" He was going to mention Donna's then-fiancÚ, but changed his mind. "-other stuff," he finished instead, rather lamely. "It seems likely they'd have stored the anti-huons nearby though. Wouldn't hurt to go and see."

"As to your dark creatures, I guess we'll figure out what they are if we need to. I do like a good puzzle!" He grinned again, stepping outside the TARDIS door and offering an elbow to each woman. "Care to lead the way, ladies?" he asked with a playful wink.

She couldn't help smiling at that, and claiming an arm for her own, even though she'd remembered something else. "Think you should lead the way to some torches first." Rose suggested lightly. "Unless your screwdriver's gotten alot brighter since the last time I saw ya." While it rather ruined the effect, a decent light source would be something good to have while they were down there. Especially if they were looking for something beyond just a glow. Especially if they wanted to find out what the things looked like.

"Torches, yeah there's some somewhere." The Doctor detached himself from Rose and quickly stepped back inside the TARDIS. His head popped back around the door a few seconds later. "Just wait a moment, won't be long."

He ducked back inside, his voice echoing outside along with several rattling noises, as if he was tossing things around in his search. "I know there's some here somewhere... Ahh, here we go!" The Doctor stepped back out again, two torches in odd shades of orange and green clutched in each hand. "Found them!" he stated, passing one off to Rose, as he used his now free hand to dig out his key and re-lock the door.

He then spun about, testing the green torch in his hand. Pressing the button didn't work, so he smacked it a few times with the heel of his hand and grimaced as the resulting bright light shone directly into his eyes. "It still works too. Always a bonus. They made things to last in the seventies."

"So, shall we then?" He offered an elbow to each woman once again, bouncing on the balls of his feet.

Before Donna could take one of the Doctor's arms, Rose brought up the point of the torches and she felt dumbstruck relief. At least Rose had thought of it. Donna wouldn't have; she was too excited to see the Doctor again and, for that matter, Rose, to have remembered to bring a better source of light.

As the Doctor tried to get the green torch to light, Donna couldn't help grinning a little. Then he got it going and offered an elbow to each herself and Rose and Donna grinned wider, linking her arm through his left. Somehow, that simple action made Donna feel complete again. She'd made the right choice trying to find him. Now, everything would be better. Now, she could be happy again.

Rose took the offered orange torch, which flickered on after the button was pressed and she gave it a good shake. She smiled again when she reclaimed his right arm. Here it was then, the first adventure back out. Even if it was really a continuation of the one that'd been going on. A branching of it? It didn't seem much like an intermission.

Either way she was too excited to really care what it counted as officially. "Let's." She answered him, taking a moment to adjust to the direction before she attempted to steer slightly towards the door, sweeping her light a bit needlessly in it's direction. One of them would have to get that, she couldn't remember the code if her life depended on it.

As they reached the door, The Doctor extricated himself from his companions in order to retrieve his sonic screwdriver from a pocket. One bleep later, the door buzzed and flashed a green light, another bleep later and the hydrolics groaned and the door opened.

"After you, ladies." He gestured inside with his torch, holding the door.

Last edited by starrylizard on Wed Jul 02, 2008 7:57 pm; edited 1 time in total

Donna took a deep breath as the door opened. The last thing she wanted to do was revisit this place and the memories that came with it. It had been bad enough the first time, but now...again with the Doctor. All the better to see the pain on his face. It was a bit silly; he was with Rose again...he would never have that look again, but...all the same.

"If it's all the same..." she said gently, giving Rose a significant look. If she had to go inside, she would, but she certainly wasn't going first.

"Right, sure." Rose said after a few seconds, after she'd caught on to the look. She shone her own torch in ahead of her, following the beam and noting the fact that she could actually almost see this time as she slipped inside past the Doctor. There didn't seem to be anything in particular different, though she couldn't tell, really. In any case it still seemed to be empty in there. Once she'd taken a few more steps inside and away from the door she moved slightly to the side, turning back to make sure the other two were coming in behind her.

"Stairs it is then." The Doctor flashed his torch about, until he located the door to the stairwell.

As he walked toward them, he nudged shoulders companionably with Donna, unused to her being quite so subdued. "We'll figure it out, Donna," he said. Not sure himself if he was referring to the huon situation, or something much more general. "You'll see."

The stairwell was dark and would only get darker once the door closed behind them. Lucky for Rose's forethought on this one or he'd be rigging a makeshift light source about now. Swinging his torch too and fro, he set off down the stairs.

Donna looked over at him and smiled slightly. Leave it to the Doctor to say something so simple that could completely reassure her. "I know," she admitted. "It's just, you know...this place..." she said sheepishly.

There were a lot of memories in that place. Some of them were good, but the few bad ones were so bad that they completely overshadowed the good. She'd loved her job there...she'd met the love of her life there. Only, even Donna knew the job was nothing fabulous and then there was the reality of who Lance really was and what he'd been up to. Marrying her had only really been part of a plan that had nothing to do with loving her. Then there was meeting the Doctor, because of that place, but that was overpowered by witnessing him turn into a shell of himself as he watched the Racnoss race die out completely under his hand...and with no remorse or sorrow whatsoever etched into his face.

"All right, so, Doctor, you'll know what you're looking for, yeah? Because, well, I don't know about Rose, but I really don't fancy having to be down there too long, even if we do have to stop those impy little things..." she said, wrinkling her nose and shuddering slightly at the thought.